Electronic devices, such as mobile communications devices, output notifications to indicate arrival of incoming electronic communications. These notifications may indicate, for example, arrival of an incoming text message or Email, a request to establish a telephone call, a news update from an information service, an advertisement, and the like. Conventional electronic devices typically support at least one of method or technique to output the notification to the user. Examples of such techniques include visual, aural, and tactile (e.g., haptic technology) output. Thus, a notification indicating the arrival of an incoming text message may generate output of an icon to a display, a beep or other sound to a speaker, and/or a vibration though a haptic system of the electronic device.
Often, if the user of an electronic device is in a situation or location where it is undesirable to receive output of a notification by a certain output technique, the user must manually adjust or disable the output mechanism. For example, when the user of an electronic device enters a library or an movie theater aural output may not be desired or appropriate. Conventional electronic devices require the user to manually mute or disable the speakers. Additionally, many electronic devices support audio/video media playback. Thus, another situation that frequently occurs is reception of an incoming communication while executing media playback—such as playing music or displaying a movie—on the electronic device. In such a situation, it may be undesirable to interrupt the media playback in order to output a notification of the incoming electronic communication.
Consequently, there is a need for a system and method for intelligent selection of notification techniques in an electronic device based on various factors, including the urgency or importance of the incoming communication and the media or application currently executing on the electronic device. Additionally, there is a need for a system and method to delay one or more notification techniques based on the stated factors.